Gram Parsons died 40 years ago yesterday

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 20 Sep 2013 4:18 pm

I just looked it up. I knew it was around this date, but I just learned that Gram Parsons died 40 years ago yesterday. His life may have not been a model on how to live one, however, he did introduce me to country music and pedal steel. He also showed me how to sing with passion and emotion. I miss where he could have taken his music.
I hope you all have a beautiful evening out in SGF land.
Duncan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S11HnNXcjbk

Will Houston · Post by **Will Houston** » 20 Sep 2013 4:49 pm

Thanks for that. Sweetheart and Gilded Palace are fairly regular listening for me and I will watch some more youtubes of Gram later tonight.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 20 Sep 2013 11:03 pm

The alternative version of "Hickory Wind" you posted is incredible, Duncan. I hadn't heard it before, thanks.
Two days ago I was listening to the radio, and they played it by the Byrds. When I heard the intro, I was quite surprised, because I've never heard this song on air before. The moderator played another GP song, told the story about the theft of Gram's coffin, and then said something like "enough Country.." and proceded with a Rory Gallagher song.
I thought, here we go again.

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 22 Sep 2013 1:20 pm

I think he "Over dosed" 40 years ago. I love his music but he along with Hendrix, Joplin and others made their own beds and now they're lying in them......JH in Va.

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 22 Sep 2013 4:34 pm

Have a very beautiful night, Jerry, from one Virginia boy to another.
Duncan

Dave Hopping · Post by **Dave Hopping** » 22 Sep 2013 11:18 pm

Gram passed away at 26,and has now not been alive for longer than the length of his life.I have a hard time getting my head around that set of metaphysics....At what point does someone who has died cease to be a person and becomes a memory?

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 26 Sep 2013 3:34 am

Here's an interview where McGuinn talks to Ralph Emory about the "Sweetheart" Byrds:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJcKYyJLfbM

Kevin Hatton · Post by **Kevin Hatton** » 26 Sep 2013 5:42 am

This is another example of of a tragic loss caused by drugs that were fostered on an entire generation. I saw the destruction of what drugs and alcohol did first hand on the baby boom generation. Lost a friend from an overdose. Others who wasted away.

Rob Munn · Post by **Rob Munn** » 26 Sep 2013 9:53 am

Hey, Thanks Duncan,

and tho I can't hear any steel in there, it would sure make a good track to lay a few vibes over with a steel. Think I'll try it. This is one of the few songs that I can play at present (newbie) and always one of my favorite tunes. Takes me back to those sunny days on the 60's/70's cusp where Buffalo Springfied, the Byrds, Nitty Gritty, Crosby and company etc. reigned supreme. Less people, less noise.
Although drugs and alcohol did end many a fine life, it is partly responsible for the music renaissance that was those times; post early Beach Boys and Beatles. I can't imagine those times without certain drugs; they likely wouldn't exist. Early St. Louis and New Orleans jazz, early blues and most music had their substance users/abusers. Again they probably wouldn't have been the same either, without those evil, mind-altering substances.
The addictive ones of course, are much worse then the ones that you can take or leave, but heroin has been around for a long time too. It's just too bad not everyone knows their limits. I think the criminilization of these substances instead of attempts at understanding it are just as much to blame. Just my opinion.

Tony Trout · Post by **Tony Trout** » 28 Sep 2013 6:16 am

Jerry Hayes wrote:I think he "Over dosed" 40 years ago. I love his music but he along with Hendrix, Joplin and others made their own beds and now they're lying in them......JH in Va.

Isn't that a bit un-kind, Jerry, diminishing his talent even though he had a problem with drugs and alcohol? If there had been such a thing as the BFC (Betty Ford Clinic) back then, we wouldn't have lost Gram, Jimi, Joplin or Elvis.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 28 Sep 2013 7:42 am

Isn't that a bit un-kind, Jerry, diminishing his talent even though he had a problem with drugs and alcohol?

Jerry said, "I love his music." How is that diminishing his talent? Considering that no one forced any of the aforementioned talents to pursue a life filled with substance abuse, etc. I think Jerry's assessment is spot-on.

scott murray · Post by **scott murray** » 28 Sep 2013 10:28 am

Addiction is an illness and in many cases, certainly in Gram's, there is a hereditary predisposition to abuse. I don't see any point in making misguided or judgmental statements in a thread that was created to honor the man's music and memory.

Barry Blackwood · Post by **Barry Blackwood** » 28 Sep 2013 1:16 pm

My agreement with Jerry was offered more as an opinion than a judgement.

Duncan Hodge · Post by **Duncan Hodge** » 28 Sep 2013 1:38 pm

Hello Folks,
I'm glad to hear that there are still a few GP fans out there

. I still love his music and believe that it has stood up well over the past 45+ years. Raw emotion, simply expressed, has always been what speaks to me in a song. Buck Owens' "My Heart Skips a Beat" makes me feel emotion as strongly as "$1,000 Wedding".
Gram's life has been an open book (actually several books). I have known many, many heroin addicts and every one has been a miserably damaged and horribly depressed person. My heart breaks in a hundred pieces for each and every one of them. Gram was able to transform his hurt into a few minutes of breathtaking beauty... for that I am very grateful.
Wherever you are in this "big blue world", Hold On and have a beautiful evening.
Duncan

chris ivey · Post by **chris ivey** » 28 Sep 2013 9:33 pm

maybe he's 'gettin' down' with hank williams.

Tony Trout · Post by **Tony Trout** » 29 Sep 2013 2:15 am

Ok, ya'll....I should apologize and I do apologize for my reply to Jerry's comment. I meant no disrespect.

John Macy · Post by **John Macy** » 3 Oct 2013 1:07 pm

I went to the final six nights of Gram and Emmy's final tour in 1973 at Oliver's in Boston (Josh Dubin was there, too). It was pretty impressionable on a young steel player (Neil Flanz was the steel player). The band I play with mostly are big Gram fans and incorporate quite a few songs in the setlist from him, and they go over big time. I am playing at the GramFest in Nashville on November 8 with Jock Bartley, who was the guitar player on the 73 tour and later founded Firefall--kind of long and winding road . Gram brought a lot of new young fans into country music, and for everything that was flawed in his life, there was a special something he brought that still rings true today....